0547 h. Don't know why it is significant, but it appears to be so for me. Almost every morning, I wake up at 0547. Granted, we do sleep with the blinds open, so the sun does come in and slowly warm us awake.
About five minutes later, Townsville remembers that it lives in the tropics, and we get hit with a blast of hot air that generally hangs around until the sun runs out of puff sometime after dark. That is why the most exciting and life changing discovery of the last century was definitely air conditioning. Somebody should definitely tell the Army that, as my office doesn't have any cooling at all.
So- back to 0547. I wake up, roll over, and look at the clock. 0547. I have even tried to keep my eyes closed for a couple of minutes just so I can miss the MOST SIGNIFICANT PART OF MY DAY, only to finally sneak a peek at the clock to see- you guessed it- 0547!!
If anybody can enlighten me as to the significance of this moment, I would be most grateful. It does allow me to stretch for three minutes before the alarm goes off but...
Now- mobile phones. If my Nana had been able to give me one more piece of advice before she went to a place where tax is non-existent and there is never a bad vintage, it would have been as follows-
Sales people are generally bad. So when they tell you that the only phone available on the plan you want is a fancy touch screen phone, and that said phone is the way of the future you need to respond with the sign of the devil, turn around three times clockwise, throw a wreath of garlic at them and spit before running away.
Now obviously Nana is too busy enjoying the perfect vintages to pass advice through the ether, or maybe I wasn't listening, because I bought said fancy touch screen phone (with the perfect plan) and thought life was perfect, as I had the technology that would change the world. We have had the phone for about three months now, and last week it just stopped working. I could access enough of the phone to tease me into thinking that it might work, but not enough to actually do anything.
Aagh, you may well say- what about the warranty? Apparently the 'internal water damage indicator' has been activated, meaning that the extended warranty we bought has been voided. Insurance would of course cover it, but seriously- has anyone ever had satisfaction when asking a phone company to pay out on insurance? ( A colleague has an i-phone that has died. His insurance policy has been declared invalid as by installing applications he has turned his i-phone into a smart-phone. Seeing as how he has only insured for an i-phone, he is out of luck. Lawyer too...)
In talking to phone technicians, they tell me that the ambient humidity here in Townsville would have triggered it. Or moving from air conditioning into natural air. Or the sweat caused from the heating of the phone against your skin when making a call.
Either way, the phone is cactus and we are out of pocket three months into a 24 month contract, which kind of sucks. It does get worse, of course. All of my contacts were saved to the phone. The SIM card is empty. It feels both liberating and terrifying at the same time!
So, if I can channel my Nana, and pass on some advice- New technology isn't new tomorrow. The next big thing is obsolete before you get it. Yesterday's technology is still there because it works. And if you live in the tropics, you are going to get wet. A lot. Suck it up.
Finally- if anybody knows anything about 0547, feel free to share!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment